A blog about translation, writing and language in all its glorious aspects
If you take part in outreach activities, or if people ever ask you the difference between translators and interpreters, and what they actually do, then you might find this “More Than Words” TEDx talk useful. Produced by the Monterey Institute of International Studies, it features Laura Burian, Miguel Garcia and Barry Olsen. The talk also provides a good answer to anyone …
Continue reading “Interpreters: what they do and how they do it”
It’s always good to find a new book on translation – for reading yourself or as a gift for a translator friend. 101 Things a Translator Needs to Know contains “over 500 years’ collective experience in translation pondered, distilled and published: nuggets of translation wisdom from prominent exponents of the profession”. The introduction describes 101 as “a book for …
Continue reading “101 things a translator needs to know but doesn’t necessarily think to ask”
Do you listen to music while you’re working? I’d love to be able to, but sadly I can’t – my brain just doesn’t work that way. When I’m reading or writing – even just a simple email – the music distracts me and I just can’t focus. I know that lots of people do manage to …
Today is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg address, delivered by Abraham Lincoln on 19 November 1863. Cordelia (aka Dilly or Dill) Ditton, a Glasgow-based actress, director and communication coach, wrote an interesting blog post about the Address back in February, entitled “Abraham Lincoln, the power of sound and maybe the greatest speech ever written“. …
Continue reading “The Gettysburg Address: lessons for writers (and translators!)”
Do you have a favourite font for on-screen work? Or do certain fonts hurt your eyes the minute you open the file? I’ve been working on a short translation project consisting of two interview transcripts of about 600 words each. Both of the source texts were in Arial 12-point, justified, without a single paragraph break. …
Continue reading “Workable fonts, and a tip for proofreading”
A very quick post – a few links to blogs and videos, essentially – for those of you who didn’t make it to the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) conference in Gatwick in May and are curious to know what everyone got up to. Here are some snapshots: Reflections on the ITI Conference, by …
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No, Dorothy, we’re in Kirkudbrightshire. And they use £ here (for now, anyway), not $ I spent a lot of time the other day (way too much time) on preparing quotes for translation jobs. Some were based on fee(£)/word, and a couple on fee(€)/standard page (which in my case equates to 1500 characters including spaces, …
Continue reading “Fee wizardry: a free online conversion tool”
We had a Twitter conversation a couple of weeks ago about Zodiac signs and the sort of character traits that make for good translators/editors. I thought it would be interesting — and fun — to see if there’s any correlation between a person’s zodiac sign and their choice of translation/editing as a career. So I’ve devised this …